LITTLE ROCK (AP) — Arkansas Game and Fish Commission employees complain in a survey about working conditions, saying morale is terrible and that commission members micromanage specific tasks when they should be dealing with the larger scope of running the agency.

The commission hired a consultant, Responsive Management of Harrisonburg, Va., to conduct the survey, which revealed deep dissatisfaction within the agency.

Beebe spokesman Matt DeCample said Thursday that the survey report, released a day earlier, addresses criticisms that had been brought to the attention of the governor’s office.

“For a few years now we’ve been hearing some general concerns about morale over there, both people calling our office directly and people giving reports to the governor,” DeCample said. “And that has been something that has come up in discussions with people he has been getting ready to appoint for the past few years.”

Of the commission’s 567 potential respondents — including the seven commissioners — 413 people responded to the survey.

“There is a perception of harassment, intimidation and bullying by upper management,” the survey report said.

Workers complained about poor communication between administrators and workers in the field, and said they were deliberately humiliated in meetings and not given respect for their training, knowledge and experience.

The report runs more than 300 pages, much of which is verbatim comments by employees about what is wrong with the agency. Their names were redacted by the consultant to protect their privacy.

Employees also complained that commissioners bowed to political concerns in setting hunting seasons instead of listening to state biologists.

The commission has drawn criticism from Gov. Mike Beebe and other officials for its handling of a number of issues in recent years.

In 2010, a committee of commission members voted to enact its own rules, which would have subverted the state’s Freedom of Information Act. The panel reversed course after public lectures from Beebe and Attorney General Dustin McDaniel.

Workers complained in the survey that commissioners put the agency in a bad position by trying to change the rules under which it operates. Some also complained that commissioners damaged the agency by not mounting a better defense the same year after a report that the commission had more state-owned vehicles than employees.

DeCample said the governor is confident commission members will address problems concerning how the agency is managed.

“Now they have this survey that will help provide a roadmap to address morale and any other issues that may be there,” DeCample said.

Commissioner Steve Cook, chair of the committee that spearheaded the survey, said he was pleased that it brought problems to light. “Overall, I think it is a healthy start to a work in progress,” Cook said.

The depth of dissatisfaction among employees was “alarming and shocking,” Cook said, but he added he wasn’t surprised that the administration was heavily criticized.

“I think it is accurate information in there and something we need to go to work on,” said Cook, who was named to the panel by Beebe last year.

Only 5 percent of employees who responded to the survey said morale at the agency was to their satisfaction.

However, 71 percent rated as good or excellent the job that the agency does managing fish and wildlife. Ninety-seven percent rated as good or excellent the credibility the agency has as a source of information about fish and wildlife issues in Arkansas.

The agency is in a period of transition. Its director, Loren Hitchcock, is preparing to retire. He had announced he would retire effective June 30, but agreed to stay on until a replacement is hired.

The survey isn’t the first to cast commissioners and administrators in a bad light.

In 1999, when Steve Wilson was director, employees complained of unfair treatment, ineffective management and politics creeping into decisions that should be based on science. Commissioners pledged to root out the problems and fix them.

The commission is funded by fees paid for hunting and fishing licenses and by a portion of a voter-approved 1/8-cent sales tax for conservation.

Cook said the commission needs to strike a balance between serving hunters and fishermen and the rest of the population — people who like to hike, camp or go birding — because the agency isn’t only supported by fees from sportsmen.